 This morning we move on. We move on to historic development, historical development of this theology, so I'm excited about looking at this over the next couple of weeks. Our objective for this study, just to stir us up by way of reminder, developing a thoroughly biblical theology of living our Christian lives in the public square. In other words, not retreating into the four walls of the church building, not retreating into caves and rocks and deserts and nunneries and monasteries and convents, but living quorum deo, as Luther would say, every aspect of life, both public and private, under the gaze of the one to whom we must give an account, right, living under the gaze of God. That means resisting the full court press of our culture to drive Christianity underground, which is certainly the aim of the culture in our day, resisting the increasing tyranny of civil governments to intrude upon our God-given rights and responsibilities as stewards of His, and then relating to this world as ambassadors for Christ and hostile territory. I pray that a theology of public life will help us biblically view that. A theology of public life considers how it is that Christians are to live in this world. And I was thinking about that in relation to John 17 and the Lord's high priestly prayer, praying not only for His disciples, but the Lord says that He prays for those who would believe in Him through their word. The Lord praying for us in verse 17 says this, John 17 verse 14, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. He would later say in John 18 that His kingdom is not of this world. In other words, it's not a political kingdom. It's not a kingdom on par with or equal to the other governments or the kingdoms of men. His kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. He rules and reigns over all. But He says He doesn't pray that we should be taken out of the world. We were saved in this world. We're to stay in this world. We're to engage this world. Verse 15, I pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. So sanctify or set them apart by your truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself that they also may be sanctified or set apart by the truth. So we are to be further set apart in this world. We're further set apart, further distinguished if you will, by the truth of God's word. And we are to live in this world according to the truth of God's word. So as we began our study today, or as we began our study weeks ago now in the theology of public life, we began our study in part one entitled, Leviathan Rising. And in part one, focusing our attention on one aspect of a theology of public life in particular. And that is on the relationship of Christians to civil authority. And so as we do that, as we consider the Christians relationship to civil authority, we are unapologetically, and I pray biblically, moving toward a theology of Christian resistance. This is a subject that we believe is necessary. If you're going to live godly in this present age, as our government increasingly seeks to extend its authoritarian reach beyond the boundaries that God himself has designated for it, Christians must clearly understand our primary responsibilities to the one who rules over the nations. As we've already seen, there are difficult questions associated with a study like this, and we're working our way slowly toward biblical answers. We'll get there as time goes by. So in our study thus far, we began by considering our current cultural climate, the circumstances of our present evil age. And we consider over several weeks point A on your outline, the rise of the new religion, that rise of the new religion, a secular humanism that has found a basis for morality in a social form of Marxism. We talk through that. It's the fastest growing religion in our nation by far, and not only growing faster than Christianity, but replacing Christianity, replacing other religions in, you know, the professing culture that we live in, at an alarming rate. Next then in point B on your outline entitled The Tentacles of Tyranny, we began to consider the enforcement arm, the enforcement arm, the magisterium, if you will, of that new religion, which is an encroaching civil government, and namely specifically the judicial branch of that government, the judicial branch of our civil government, the courts. For the zealous proponent of the new religion for Roman first and his buddies, what cannot be won on the merits in public discourse must be won in the courts. To them, it's a matter of a moral imperative, and it will eventually be legislated in the halls of Congress. And all that despite the word of God, despite our constitution even, and despite all reason, those things we'll see come to pass. We then considered the proper biblical jurisdiction of civil authority in point C on your outline entitled Sphere Sovereignty, those biblical spheres in which God has delegated authority or jurisdiction and the boundaries that are established for the exercise of that authority within those jurisdictions. And then finally, looking at the proper biblical basis for civil authority in point D, writing wrongs from Romans, hopefully correcting many unbiblical interpretations or understandings of that text. So this morning then we move on to point E on your outline and the historical development of church-state relations, the historical development. And the thought again is, is that as we study sort of the historical development of this theology, we get to see how thought develops over time and we'll have an opportunity to develop our own thought as we work through that. We'll take a brief opportunity over the next couple of weeks to trace the historical development of a theology of public life. To do that, we'll sort of be loosely following the outline of Glenn Sunshine and his book Slaying Leviathan, very loosely, but I think the outline there is basically walking through historical points or historical periods that are critical in the development of the theology. And I'm hoping that this section, the historical development is going to help us in a few ways. One, as we see the theology worked out in history, I believe it'll help us to be more precise as we work out our theology in the present, right? Just seeing how the questions that are asked and the questions that are answered and how the theology is fine-tuned, that's the study of historical theology. A lot of times the historical theology helps us to be more precise in how we think about questions and answers as we're developing our own theology. That's where I think historical theology is really helpful. It'll give us more of an application for the basis on which our own government has been founded, which I think will be interesting to all of us as we consider that. And then third, I pray it'll give us a more biblical or spirit-wrought confidence with the subject as we think through it and as we respond to our own government in our day. Alright, so with historical development then we begin with the early church. We begin with the early church. The early church articulated biblically a very clear distinction between church and state. The early church articulated a clear distinction between church and state. It was not the distinction in which the state abandoned any responsibility to God. The early church didn't believe that. The early church didn't believe that the state was entirely separate from religion in any shape, form, or fashion, but that the two were under God, the state under God, as the church was under God, and it wasn't in the sense that the church abandoned any responsibility to the state as if the church were entirely separate. The church had responsibility, they believed, to the state. We see that articulated for us by the Lord Himself in Matthew 22. Turn there with me. And from this text in Matthew 22 we'll see the early church begin to develop a theology of public life or a theology of relationship to this state between this text and other texts in the New Testament. We'll see that then begin to be worked out in history. Matthew chapter 22 verse 15. Let's go through this text together. Lord speaking, verse 15, then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle him in his talk. This was a plotting, a scheming on the part of the Pharisees. So they sent to him, verse 16, their disciples with the Herodians saying, Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone for you do not regard the person of men. All right, I should have read that a little differently because you can almost hear the demeaning, condescending, patronizing tone in what they're saying, right? Teacher, we know that you are true. Teach the way of God. These are snakes, all right? They're seeking to trap him in his words, these deceitful. You can almost hear the voice of the serpent from the garden, can't you? In their, in their questions, you do not regard the person of men. You don't care about anyone. Well, interesting here in this conflict that's about to take place is, are the groups represented? All right, the two groups represented the Pharisees. The Pharisees were tired of being made to look like fools because they had been rebuked by the Lord just shutting their mouths on numerous occasions now. So what do they do? They send their disciples, right? Notice it's the, the Pharisees sent to him their disciples and then the Pharisees, the Pharisees sent them with the Herodians. Look at verse 16, the Herodians. The Pharisees, their disciples representing the law of Moses, you could say representing the ecclesial authority. Whereas the Herodians, the Herodians were those who were loyal to Herod and the Roman government. The Herodians representing a group loyal to Rome, which was the civil authority at the time. So think about what the Pharisees are plotting now, right? They want to catch Jesus, trap Jesus in his words. They're going to ask him a question about taxes. And so what do they do? They send ecclesial authorities to Jesus with civil authorities to Jesus. If Jesus answers yes in keeping with the Roman authorities, it's going to anger, they think upset the Jews. And if Jesus says no, then he's saying no in front of the Roman government, right? They're hatching this plot thinking they've got him. We're going to catch him. We're going to get him, right? So they say in verse 17, tell us, tell us, what do you think? You know, picture the snake in Jungle Book, right? These serpents. What do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Okay? You see what these wicked snakes were doing, right? They thought to themselves, if Jesus answers yes, he'll anger the Jews. If Jesus answers no, he'll anger the Romans. Either way, we've got him, right? Verse 18, I absolutely love these stories in the Bible, these accounts, just in the economy of words, the infinite wisdom of God. It's just awesome. Verse 18, Jesus perceived their wickedness and said, why do you test me, you hypocrites? I think we should be more direct that way when we have opportunity. Show me the tax money. So they brought him a denarius, verse 20, and he said to them, whose image and inscription is this? They said to him, Caesar's. He said to them, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are gods. When they heard these words, they marveled. They're astonished, right? It's like, we never would have thought of that. We didn't get that. They marveled and left them and went their way. All right. So what are some points, some observations that we can take away from this text? First, Caesar has a legitimate claim. Caesar has legitimate claim. Just as the early church, we apply the teaching of Paul, for example, in Romans chapter 13 to help us further understand the Lord's teaching. As the early church thought about the Lord's teaching in Matthew 22, they're applying other texts of scripture that are also very clear, namely Romans chapter 13. And what do they come to? There is no authority except from God for Romans 13, right? There is no authority except from God. The authorities that exist, they're all appointed by God. We went through that in Romans 13. And to resist Caesar's rightful authority, to resist Caesar's legitimate claim is to resist the ordinance or law of God and to resist God himself. Okay. He Caesar is God's appointed deacon. He's God's appointed minister for good, Romans 13. He bears the sword to execute wrath on those who do evil, Romans 13. For this reason, Romans 13, you pay taxes. You see, you give customs, you give appropriate respect, appropriate honor to the civil authorities. So God has given the authority, God has given the right to Caesar to make legitimate certain claims upon those who are subject to him. Caesar has the right. He has a legitimate authority, that authority given him by God. And so to give to Caesar the things, those things that are Caesar's is in obedience to God. You see the connection? The early church again was working this out. They take texts from the New Testament. In particular, the Lord's teaching here, Caesar has legitimate claim. To give Caesar the things that belong to Caesar is in obedience to God. Caesar has legitimate claim. Secondly, God has legitimate claim. God has his legitimate claims. Caesar's claim is not absolute. What the Lord is not doing, and we know this from Romans 13, or study of Romans 13. God is not drawing an equivalency between these two authorities. God's not drawing an equivalency between Caesar's authority and God's authority. Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's. As if those two authorities are equal, God's not drawing any kind of equivalency, any kind of moral equivalency, authority equivalency or otherwise. Caesar's claim is not absolute. The things that belong to Caesar are those things that are appointed by God. So to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's is to, in keeping with the ordinance of God, Romans 13, is to give to Caesar the things that are appointed by God for us to lawfully give to Caesar. And the things that belong to God, we are to give to God as bond slaves of God. Paul would say later that you and I were bought with a price. We are not our own. Therefore, we are to glorify God in our bodies. We are not our own. Therefore, we are not to be bond slaves of men. We're bought by the Lord Jesus Christ. We are His slaves, not the slaves of men. We are not to be brought into bondage, bondage to men. We're not to be the slaves of men, right? The things that belong to God, those things we give to God. There is no contradiction between the two from the text. There is no contradiction. There is no equivalency between the two. They are not equal objects of our submission. How do we know this? Like somebody apply text for me. How do we know that they are not equal objects of our submission? I'm thinking of the example of Peter when he was in prison and the Lord sends the angels and they open the gates for him. He doesn't stay in prison saying, oh, the civil authorities put me here. He said the Lord and he continues to preach. That follows what the Lord has him do, right? Yeah. And we see examples like that commended all over the text of scripture. Various examples where men obey God rather than men, right? Christians obey God rather than men. Yes. And I was thinking about the commandments to love your God above all things. Yeah. So not having any other idols. Yeah. Very good. To love or esteem men above God is idolatry, right? Sixth O. Shadrach, you said I've been to gold. Yeah, very good. They used to go and they said obey God rather than men. Yeah, obey God rather than men, right? Multiple, multiple examples in the text of scripture. Then we have the explicit statements of Paul in the text we studied together Romans 13 that the authorities that exist are appointed by God. They are accountable to God. They are responsible to God for the way in which they exercise authority. So yeah, all good answers. Okay. If Caesar then were to presume rights to himself that we're not given by God, Caesar is a usurper. Caesar becomes a tyrant. Did Caesar do that? Yes, he did. Often the Caesars did that. Is our government doing that today? Yes, they are, right? Yes, they are. If Caesar presumes rights to himself that are not given by God, then Caesar is a usurper. The people are called upon to obey God rather than men, to obey men rather than God is idolatry. Those things, right, give to Caesar the things, give to God the things. Those things that were outside the scope of Caesar's authority or outside the scope of Caesar's jurisdiction, so to speak, those things that belong to God alone, those things became the subject of much conversation in the early church. What are those things? What are those things that belong within the jurisdictional bounds of the authority that Caesar has been given? And what are those things that cannot be rendered to Caesar, that Christians must restrain from rendering to Caesar because those things belong to God? Became the thought of the early church and in particular became the thought of the early church because the early church was being heavily and highly persecuted by the civil authority. We see the fruit of that thought within just a few decades after the Lord's death and resurrection. The church had begun to circulate within a matter of a very short time, a very short time, after the Lord's death, after the Lord's resurrection, the church began to circulate what became quite possibly the earliest confession of the church that we know of, and that is the confession that Jesus is Lord. Curious Jesus, right? Jesus is Lord. In the Roman world, the Roman empire that covered the extent of the known world at that time, there was only one Lord and his name was Caesar, okay? To confess Jesus Christ as Lord in the early church was to deny that Caesar was Lord, right? To confess Jesus. This is something that the early church had to work through and had to understand and this happened immediately. To confess Jesus Christ as Lord was to deny that Caesar is Lord. It was treason. It was considered treasonous by Caesar, by the Roman government at the time. To confess, think about this one with me, to confess Jesus Christ as Lord to the Jews was blasphemy. It was also treasonous to the Jews to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. To give that title, Lord, in the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Kurios is often used for God, often used for God. It's the most common title given to God, Lord. Yahweh is Lord. So to confess Jesus Christ as Lord was to, in a Jews thought in their mind, was to deny the fact that Yahweh was Lord. It was to set up two gods, right? And the Jews just could not wrap their heads around that. To give that title of Kurios to any other to the Jews was blasphemous. Incidentally, on a side note, that designation, Jesus is Lord, is also a powerful testimony to the early church's belief that Jesus Christ is God because of that, right? To confess that Jesus Christ is Lord was treasonous to the Romans, to confess Jesus as Lord was blasphemous to the Jews, and incidentally, a claim on the part of the Christians that Jesus Christ is Yahweh, that Jesus Christ is God. So no Roman would have ceased his confession of Caesar as Lord without having put saving faith in Jesus Christ. Roman just would not have done it. The Romans, in order to buy and sell, the Romans in order to get around in the Roman Empire, in order for them to have jobs and to be able to function, and I'm going to talk about a situation in Rome in a minute that's very daunting, in order for them to get by, in order for them to continue life as they knew it, required the confession that Caesar is Lord. So no Roman would have given up the confession of Caesar is Lord without having put faith in Jesus Christ. It just would have been absurd to the Roman, and no Jew would have uttered that confession without having believed upon Jesus Christ, okay? For a Jew or a Roman to confess Jesus Christ as Lord would have essentially meant the end of life as they knew it for them. It was a very, very, very serious confession. A.T. Robertson said this. He said, one is reminded of the demand made to Polycarp, early church theologian, that he say, Curious Caesar, Caesar is Lord, and how each time he replied, Curious Jesus, Jesus Christ is Lord. Polycarp was martyred for that confession, right? He paid the penalty for his loyalty with his life. Lighthearted men today can say Lord Jesus in a flippant or even an irreverent way, but no Jew or Gentile then said it who didn't mean it, right? It was very, very serious, extraordinarily weighty life and death confession to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And Polycarp and many others, many others paid for that confession with their lives. Paul Washer. We are saved by faith alone in the person and work of Christ alone, but the evidence that our faith is genuine is our confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and our allegiance to him, even when such a confession costs us dearly. It's part of the theology behind counting the cost to follow Christ. In a day and age, in a circumstance where often there is very, very little cost associated with following the Lord Jesus Christ, professing churches who don't understand the weight and gravity of this confession, pack their churches with weeds, pack their churches full of Christians who have absolutely no care or concern whatsoever for what Jesus is Lord actually entails and many of them unconverted on their way to hell. The early church, Paul Washer says, the early church suffered and died because it faithfully proclaimed Jesus as Lord and refused to worship Caesar. At this very moment, Christians suffer imprisonment, torture and death because of the same confession. Even in the Western world, there is little or no physical persecution to speak of. The true believer is the one who submits to the Lordship of Jesus Christ rather than live by the standards of this present evil age. You see how, right, if we just think for a moment, just think for a moment, how difficult it is for anyone in our context to understand the gravity of that confession, Jesus is Lord, because we don't live under the same circumstances. You know, I've often used in evangelism, frankly, it's often when I get the question, why don't you baptize immediately after someone makes a profession of faith, right? Somebody asks the question, why don't you baptize immediately, immediately after someone makes a profession of faith? Well, it's partly because the church has a responsibility to affirm their profession of faith. You know, we have a responsibility before God to affirm that. The body, the church affirms that before we admit them, so to speak, into the membership of the church, and that for good and for good reason. But I've said that, let's say for example, you're a professing Christian, right? Jesus is Lord, and you're in a Muslim country. Let's say that you're in Tehran, Iran. You come to believe, put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, and the first thing that you do, having put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ is obey him to preach the gospel. You go downtown Tehran, and you set up on a corner, and you preach that Muhammad is a fake fraud, and you preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, what are you doing? You're taking your life in your own hands, right? You could set an egg timer by how long you're going to last on that corner, and Jesus is Lord takes on new significance, doesn't it? That confession, so that's the sort of maybe the context in our day. For a Christian to have confessed Jesus as Lord in the first century was a confession of that kind of weight, that kind of significance, okay? This is the context, think with me now, this is the context of Paul's words in Romans chapter 10 verse 9. How often is this text absurdly twisted in modern day evangelism? It's atrocious, and it's just inexcusable, that if you confess with your mouth, Romans chapter 10 verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, curious Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. It's not that that confession or profession earns or merits justifying, you know, justification, but it is the overflow of the heart of one who's been justified by saving faith, okay? For our consideration, our consideration, this is one of the earliest examples of Christian resistance to tyranny. In other words, the heritage that we have of Christian resistance over centuries now began in the early church with the confession Jesus is Lord, right? And it has grown, been magnified or been developed, cultivated over time. There were those in Bethenia, which is modern day Turkey, that part of Asia Minor, those in Bethenia who were accused to Roman officials of being Christians, right? When this confession began to be known by the Romans and we're spreading, it was spreading around the Roman Empire, of course Roman officials, Roman governors, prelates, magistrates began to see this confession as treasonous, as against the authority of Caesar. The Jews had been given their peccadillos, if you will, by the Roman government and allowed certain things accompanying their religion because it was a large sect that was in the Roman Empire. The Romans had occupied Judea, Jerusalem, and the Jews were allowed to practice their religion and in the practice of their religion, Caesar would allow, the Roman government would allow them not to put an image of Caesar in the temple. The Roman government would allow them to not repeat the confession, Kurios Caesar. So the Jews were given some leeway with this because of the Roman view of occupation at that time, but the Christians were not. And so when a Christian, again, when a Christian made this confession, it was treasonous to the Romans, it was blasphemy to the Jews. So what began to take place in the Roman Empire were people were turning one another in. It's fascinating to me. Fascinating. That is, you read the Lord's words. Let's go there just for kicks. I want to look at this. Matthew 24. Matthew 24. And look at Matthew 24 verse three. This became the experience of the early Christians, the early church, this kind of persecution. As the Lord sat on the Mount of Olives, verse three, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? The Lord had just said to them, listen, this beautiful temple, these beautiful buildings that you see from the Mount of Olives, right? Looking across the Kidron Valley to the Temple Mount, every one of those buildings is going to be destroyed. It's going to be raised to the ground. The disciples understood that he was speaking of the end times of the end of days. And so they came to him asking him privately, when are these things going to take place? When is this destruction going to take place? When will be the end of the age? Jesus answered, verse four, and said to them, take heed that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Now, who's he speaking to? The disciples. Yeah, yeah, ultimately. Yeah, but yeah, to the disciples, right? Sometimes we forget that he's speaking to disciples about what's going to happen to them. And by implication, what's going to happen to us? Okay? He says, for nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes, various places. All these things are the beginnings of sorrows. When was the beginnings of sorrows? At that period when the disciples were being persecuted, just like many in the church today are being persecuted. The beginnings of sorrows happened then, right? In AD 70, the Romans came through and sacked Jerusalem, destroyed and tore down every one of those buildings, raised them to the ground, right? Beginnings of sorrows happened then. The beginning of tribulation happened then. Look at verse nine. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Is that true of the disciples? Yes. True of the church today? Yes. Then many will be offended, will be betray one another and will hate one another. And many false prophets, that's the point that I wanted to come to. Many will betray one another. The Lord says that daughters will testify against mothers and daughters in law against their mothers in law and sons against fathers. The enemies of a man will be those of his own household. What began to take place in the Roman Empire at this particular time with respect to this confession, Jesus is Lord, is that that many began turning in their neighbors. There's a bunch of Christians living over there, right? I'm a tradesman. I'm selling a flower. There's a guy over there that's grinding. He's my competitor. He's selling a flower. I know what I'm going to do. He's a Christian. So go get them, right? So I'll have the corner of the market, you know, my part of town for the sale of flower. People began to turn one another in. And so what began to happen in Roman provinces in the early church was that lists would be sent to governors, to magistrates. These guys are Christians. You need to go take care of them. And so there were those that had questions about that that didn't quite know how to implement law against these that were accused of treason. So there were those in Bethany, modern day Turkey, same kind of circumstance, accused of being Christians, right? They're accused of being Christians. This document was written, sent up to Pliny the Younger, who is governor of Roman governor of Bethany at that time. This would have been under Emperor Trajan. Emperor Trajan ruled from 8098 to 8117. So early church period, early church. And this letter written to the emperor in 8112, right? So in 8112, Pliny writes this, An anonymous information was laid before me containing a charge against several persons who upon examination denied that they were Christians or had ever been so, right? So a charge had been laid against these people that they were Christians. They investigated and these people denied being Christians. They repeated after me. This was the test that Pliny gave to them. Okay. They repeated after me an invocation to the gods. That's the Roman pantheon of gods and offered religious rights with wine and incense before your statue. The religious right with wine and incense before the statue was accompanied by a confession of Caesar's Lord and even reviled the name of Christ, which it is said those who are really Christians cannot be induced to do. I thought it proper therefore to discharge them. All right. So think with me about what's going on here. Again, this is an example in the early church where Christians are developing a theology of Christian resistance to civil authority when it is tyrannical. They're obeying God rather than men in their confession of Jesus as Lord. And here comes a bunch of people who are accused of being Christians, right? Accused of being Christians. Pliny runs out, hops in his chariot, goes to investigate, rounds them all up, and he asked them if they're Christians. They say, no, we've never been Christians. So Pliny, not going to just take them at their word, gives them a test, gives them a test. He has them repeat an invocation to the gods. They're going to pray. They pray to the Roman pantheon of gods. They offered religious rights to the pantheon of gods. A wine and incense before the statute to burn incense and confess Caesar as Lord was to treat Caesar as though he were a God. We'll talk about that in a moment. And they even reviled the name of Jesus Christ. So Pliny thinks to himself, he explains to the emperor, listen, if these were genuine Christians, genuine Christians can't be induced to do this. These must not be genuine Christians. So I let them go. I discharged them. Now Pliny wants to understand if he did the right thing or not. So he's writing Emperor Trajan to ask for counsel. The Romans here believed in a pantheon of gods. We all are aware of those gods, right? Not the Greek version, but the Romans had their own version that mirrored the Greek version. Romans believed in a pantheon. When you needed help in a particular realm, right, there was a God, little G, that ruled over that realm. And you went to that God little G to pray and ask for help in that realm. And if you didn't ask for help, if you were so presumptuous as to enter into that realm, so to speak, without praying and asking for help, you could incur the judgment, the judgment of that God little G, and they're awfully angry. So you better do your due diligence. So like, for example, Neptune is the God of the sea. So if you're going to take a ship, you're going to load down your ship with goods and you're going to take it to Corinth to trade. Well, before you set sail for Corinth, you better beseech the little G false nothing God Neptune and ask of his help. Otherwise, you might incur the wrath of Neptune on your way to Corinth and lose your, you lose your ship, right? And the way that they would do that is through religious rights. They would pray to these gods. They would offer incense to these little gods. Well, one of those realms over which these gods presided, one of those realms was government was civil authority. And who do you think is the God little G over that realm? Caesar, right? Caesar. So what did you do? You did the same thing. You prayed to Caesar. You asked Caesar's blessing. You burnt incense, religious rights to Caesar. That was the way that this thing worked. His subjects, Caesar's subjects were to acknowledge Caesar's sovereignty over anything to do with civil civil government, civil authority, the national defense, policing, if you will, all of that was the realm of Caesar. The Romans made exceptions for Jews, but they did not make exceptions for the Christians. So what happened then? This led to absolutely horrific and terrible persecution of Christians all over the Roman Empire. And that began under Nero. Nero ruled 8054 to 8068. So by the time that Paul writes Romans, for example, we're studying Sunday mornings, Nero's in power, right? 8054, 8068. And the Christians in the early church thought to be derelicts under Roman rule or rejecting of Roman rule thought to be rebels, treasonous rebels at that for a host of reasons, host of reasons. One of those was cannibalism. Why do you think that the charge of cannibalism was leveled against them? Lord supper, yeah, eating the body, drinking the blood, you know, a bunch of cannibals worshiping. They believe that the Christians were atheists because the Christians did not believe in their pantheon of gods. The Christians accepted women and slaves as equals. It was just unconscionable. It couldn't understand why in the world that would take place. Poor and slaves could become leaders in the church. And there were many poor and slaves who were considered leaders in the church. The Romans looked down on that. Most preeminent among all of those reasons was the absolute shame of a crucified savior, right? If you remember the illustration I used in a sermon a while back, I don't remember the context in which I brought up that illustration, but there's the story of the fine, the archaeological find of a chiseled drawing on the side of a stone of a young man worshipping a man on a cross, right? He was knelt down, head bowed, worshipping a man on a cross. And I'm trying to remember the name of the young man now, the etching on the stone. But he worships his God. And at first blush you might think, well, that's, you know, his God, right? That's an early, very early depiction of Christian worship. But the one that hung on the cross has a donkey's head, right? And the whole inscription was mocking this one for worshiping this crucified savior. So the Christians were the objects of derision to say the least for a host of reasons. Problems came up, blame the Christians. There was the rumor that Nero had burned down half the city of Rome to make room for his palace. And then he blamed Christians for the fire, right? Yes, Aramea. Yep. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, masculine, right? The Romans, like in their, the Roman pantheon of gods. So it was very shameful, the contrast between Jesus Christ who died on a cross, crucified by the Romans, and that Roman pantheon of gods who and had all the strength and power. Yeah. So just Christians were viewed as pathetic, right? Pathetic. Um, Tertullian, early church father said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. What happened in the period of the early church when Christians were so highly persecuted? What happened with the church? Yeah, right. Yeah. So the church after Stevens, after Stevens martyred, the church scattered, it's called the diaspora, right? They spread all over the place, and they went everywhere preaching the word. And what happened to the church? They grew, like spread like wildfire. And like even if you follow that after Acts chapter seven, through the book of Acts, and they added to their number daily, they added to their number daily. Daily disciples were being added to the church. Many feared them, but disciples were added daily, right? It's like the church just grew and grew and grew. And that's what prompted Tertullian to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Anytime there's an outbreak, if you will, of persecution against the church, the church thrives and grows. Why? The gates of Hades will not prevail against it, right? We see that happening throughout history. Glenn Sunshine, when all they had to do was burn a pinch of incense to the emperor, many went to their deaths, many went to their, all they had to do, burn a pinch of incense to the emperor, Caesar's lord, and their lives were spared, and Christians refused, refused. And many went to their deaths. Many went to their deaths. If you read, for example, Fox's book of martyrs or others singing hymns, right? Reciting Psalms, praying, joyful. Those biographies are just staggering, astounding pictures of faith, right? Pictures of faith. You read the end of Hebrews 11. You see those examples, right? Those testimonies, not testimonies of human faithfulness, but testimonies of what God does through the means of faith in his people. It's a miraculous testimony of God delivering his people. The Romans didn't have anything, anything that they were willing to die for in that way. And so the contrast becomes really clear, right? The contrast becomes very clear between Romans and what they lived and died for and Christians. I would submit to you that as time goes by and as persecution increases, we need to remember our testimony in the same way. What is it that you are willing to die for? And if you're willing to die for it, certainly we're going to take a stand for that short of dying, right? Especially in this wicked and perverse generation. As Christians went to their deaths, it was a beautiful testimony of the compelling force of Christ's love for them, a compelling testimony of the gospel that Christians would be willing to die and die such ignominious deaths at the hands of the Romans because of it. You remember, it's not just simply running them through, for example. Christians were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum. Peter was crucified upside down. Paul was beheaded. I believe it was Mark that was flayed. If you know what that is, it's just you take iron pincers and you just peel the skin from the body alive. Mark was flayed. They do that and just continuously until you die. So these are Christians who refuse. Many, many, many were burned to the stake. So I encourage you to read those biographies. They will light a fire under you as well. Lee, Mike, come in, brother. Thank you. I've been listening to church history on sermon audio and the guy that was teaching it said that he shows a report from one of assistants to the Caesar and it shows saying that that's what all Christians died from just horrible deaths. It started turning though. The people started watching all this and how they died and it started turning. They started complaining to, well, in other words, they saw that this near was making them martyrs to cover his crimes. Yeah. But the church started growing. Yeah. Because of the witness of those that died. Yeah. Amen. Amen. Undermined the rule and authority of the civil authority. Yeah. Raimi, right behind you, Troy. In the 1500s as Roman that way in form of persecution was ending and the Catholic Church started to establish itself. Actually, the Catholic Church martyred and brutally beat Christians worse than the Greeks and the Romans did. So it was very, very, very sad. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. There's a growing Roman Catholicism during this time and we'll see in their theology and that's where the Holy Roman Empire, that term comes from. We'll talk about that briefly next week as we'll get into that period that begins with Constantine 325 and goes forward. But yeah, we'll look at that period in church history too a bit. Ben, something, brother? I was just curious if you had any commentary on name in the Syrians actions when he, I think you told, told Isaiah, pardon me when I, where is it? I can't remember now. Pardon me when I bow before bow with my master in front of the, I forget the temple of whoever it was. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I think so. We'll have to look at that. I don't have any commentary off the top of my head, brother. Okay. I'll have to look at that text. I'm always curious about like how that was regarded by either the Jews or the Christians, that action that he took when he, you know, when he cleansed himself in the river, before he cleansed himself in the river. Well, he cleansed himself for the, well, he cleanses himself and then he seems like he, he now has sort of a possible faith towards the God of Israel. But then he bows with his master. He says, pardon this action when I bow with my master. I don't know if that implied that, I'm not sure what it implies, but, but it's interesting. Yeah. Thank you for bringing it up. I'll look at it. See, we'll take a look. Okay. All right. Let's continue. Let me make a point about this too while we're on this, this issue of the confession of Jesus's Lord. The, the, the use of that confession in modern day evangelism, specifically with respect to the sinner's prayer and this notion that confessing with your mouth, Jesus Christ's Lord, the use of that out of its proper context is disgusting. It's despicable. It is deplorable. And it is the predominant use of that text in the church today. It's unbelievable to me how little regard for the context of that confession modern day evangelism gives to that statement. So I would say avoid like the plague that whole thing, right? It's, you know, let's go back to using biblical, the idea that, you know, that it's part of saying a prayer to ask Jesus into your heart. You're simply going to recite the words. You could teach a parent to say Jesus's Lord doesn't make a parent, a Christian, you know, but just the use of that is absolutely despicable. And that's the, the degree to which modern day evangelism, modern day preaching of the gospel, modern day Christianity, our conception of Christianity, not ours, but has sunk is to where that confession could be employed so weakly and despicably. It's inexcusable. I remember, let me give you a quick story. I don't want to waste too much of our time, but I remember the Lord had saved me. The Lord had saved me in a wicked false church and sitting listening to a false teacher preaching false gospel. And in spite of all that, in spite of all that, the Lord saved me. I'm just amazed by it. But coming out of there, it took me about a year, like of studying, trying to figure things out, like understanding the Bible, something was going on. I was, you know, so before I could get to the point of saying, this is a false gospel. That makes that a false teacher. That makes this a false church and we can't come back here. It was about a year long process for me. It took me a while and, but the Lord's help, right? Just very gracious. I remember talking to a deacon in that church. The deacon was telling me a story about a guy who he witnessed to, the guy he witnessed to is a guy that was in our Sunday school class. I want to put it in context. This guy living with his girlfriend outside of marriage, living together. Okay. And they're in this church teaching the kids. They're working in Awana's, the Awana's program teaching the kids. This guy, the deacon had witnessed the deacon, had witnessed to this guy, witnessed to this guy, had him repeat the prayer and, you know, to his own confession, like confess Jesus Christ as Lord Jesus Christ as Lord. This deacon then couldn't get him to come to church and couldn't get him to follow up with baptism. I've got to get him, got to get him baptized. Got to get him baptized. In particular, got to get him baptized. We got to put that number on a denominational statistics, right? We got somebody. So he essentially tricked him. He said, Hey, I want to meet you. Will you meet me for coffee at such and such a place? And it was the church. And he had somebody from the church there, met with him. As you're here, let's baptize you. So basically, you know, he was explaining to me how he had to trick this guy to come to church, trick this guy to be baptized. Well, once they baptize him and stuff, you know, he started coming to church and they eventually made him a teacher of the children in Awana's. But the issue is, is that for the genuine Christian, are you kidding me? You don't have to trick anybody. Like this one is willing to die to make the confession that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Doesn't have to be tricked into some prayer, tricked into some confession, tricked into their baptism. Listen to what Pliny, Pliny continues. Okay. Remember, this is the Roman governor. He says, others whose names were given to me by an informer first said that they were Christians and afterwards denied it, declaring that they had been so before, but were not so longer. Some of them having recanted many years before and more than one so long as 20 years back. They all worshiped your image talking. This is Pliny talking to Caesar. They all worshiped your image Caesar and the statues of the deities and they curse the name of Christ. These are people who confess to be Christians. And then they're telling the governor of Rome here upon like potential punishment of death or exile. Yeah, we're no longer Christians. Okay. But they declared that the sum of their guilt, the sum of their guilt or their error only amounted to this, that on a stated day, they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak and to recite a hymn among themselves to Christ as though he were a God. And that so far from binding themselves by oath to commit any crime, their oath was to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, and from breach of faith and not to deny trust money placed in their keeping when called upon to deliver it. In other words, they're denying to be Christians to the governor and saying, listen, we weren't, once we're Christians, we've since turned away from all that. Listen, the only thing we were guilty of is just getting together on a certain day and praying and singing a song and then going home and trying not to commit any crimes. What does that sound like today? It sounds like a modern church. The only, you could line up professing Christians in the modern church today and the only thing they'd be guilty of is getting together once a week on a Sunday, singing a couple of songs, listening to a talk, and then going home. Right? That's the sum and substance of their Christian life. Nothing they're going to die for, right? Pliny continues. When this ceremony was concluded, it had been their custom to depart and meet again to take food, the Lord's supper, but it was of no special character and quite harmless. And they had ceased this practice after the edict, the rule of the governor, in which, according with your orders, emperor, I had forbidden all secret societies. So what happened when the government began to pose its will on the early, these professing Christians? What did they do? They shrunk back. We're not doing that anymore. And when the governor comes and questioned them, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we gave up that whole Christianity thing, right? Why? Because they're threatened with death and threatened with exile, right? Threatened with imprisonment. Sounds like the modern day church. Only meaning to do some harmless things and then leaving quite harmless, right? What happens? The persecution breaks out when you open your mouth for Jesus Christ. When you take a stand for Jesus Christ, Pliny continues and we'll end with this. I thought it the more necessary therefore to find out what the truth there, what truth there was in these statements. I wanted to find out the truth by submitting two women who were called deaconesses to the torture. They were servants of the church and Pliny, to find out the truth, submitted these two ladies, these two women, to torture. But I found nothing but a debased superstition carried to great lengths. In other words, superstition, Jesus Christ is Lord, carried probably possibly to the end of their lives under torture. So I postponed my examination and immediately consulted you. The matter seems to me to be worthy of your consideration, especially as there are so many people involved in the danger. They were getting lists and lists, people turning people in as Christians. Many persons of all ages and of both sexes alike are being brought into the peril of their lives by their accusers. And the process will go on for the contagion of this superstition, Christianity, has spread not only through the free cities, but into the villages and the rural districts. And yet it seems to me that it can be checked and set right. Pliny is saying this thing is spreading everywhere. It's spreading out of control. It seems to me we can get it under control if we do what's necessary. But this thing is spreading all over the place. Christians testifying that Jesus is Lord under threat of capital punishment. You see? Quick application. Government has a legitimate function. Government has a legitimate authority. That authority is not absolute. It is limited. There is a distinction. There is a distinction between church and state. Until Jesus Christ returns, there is no theocracy. And believers must biblically navigate our relationship to what is an increasingly hostile civil authority. And we have the testimony of our brothers and sisters in centuries past to egoson, right? A great cloud of witnesses to testify to us from scripture and from history. Very grateful for that. All right, we're out of time. I had to rush through that end part, but let's pray. If you have questions, I'd be happy to talk to you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time together, Lord, that we have to consider this subject and now the testimony of the early church. Help us as we continue, Lord, to help us to gain understanding in particular, Lord, from your word as to how we are to conduct ourselves, cultivating a theology of public life, and how we should bring glory to your name with our testimony to this world. We love you. We thank you. Be with us as we worship you now in Jesus' name. Amen.